[Various] The Deposed Crown Prince's Survival Story

After some deliberation—mainly because he hadn't anticipated building so many palaces in the future, and couldn't think of any reason or excuse Fusu could have for deceiving him—Ying Zheng readily agreed to Fusu's request. (Le-Wen)

We'll just build one, no matter what. We can make it bigger and bigger, as long as it becomes the most amazing palace in the world.

Ying Zheng clenched his fist, happily imagining his future new home. Things like white jade steps were too low-class. It had to be more beautiful and luxurious than the Zhanghua Palace in Chu. "Purple shells for the path" sounded incredibly extravagant.

The Zhanghua Terrace, which Ying Zheng envisioned, also known as the Zhanghua Palace, was a grand building constructed by King Ling of Chu with the entire nation's resources, taking several years to complete. It was hailed as the "Number One Terrace in the World" at the time.

Legend has it that Zhanghua Terrace is "10 zhang high and 15 zhang wide at the base". The winding steps lead up to the top, and one has to rest three times in between to reach the top, hence it is also known as "Three Rest Terrace".

However, after conquering Chu, Ying Zheng went to see it in person. It was an old house from hundreds of years ago. Although it had been renovated several times and was still luxurious, Ying Zheng still felt that the house was too short and the place was too small to be impressive enough, so it had to be much bigger.

"Do you understand, son?"

When Fusu offered to draw a sketch of the new palace, Ying Zheng patted him on the shoulder and said his idea, "That Zhangtai Palace, the one you've seen, it has to be bigger than that, understand?"

“Bigger…” Fusu pondered for a moment, a glint of intelligence flashing in his dark eyes. He then put on a stern face and said seriously, “Su’er understands.”

Bigger! And we need to save money! Looks like we can only build a super-large, luxurious panoramic stereo... plaza.

Speaking of which, why did Father Emperor build such a huge square? Is he planning to have his thousands of concubines do square dancing together when he gets old?

That was truly a beautiful painting, almost too beautiful to look at.

Once he accepted the task, he had to get to work. That very night, Fusu began working late into the night.

What?! You mean drawing design drafts?!

Fusu was in the spacious courtyard of his palace, where he filled a cart with mud and played with it.

There was no other way. In those days, there were neither computers nor paper. Bamboo slips were too small to be suitable for drawing, and drawing on silk was not only too extravagant and wasteful, but also inconvenient for making corrections.

Therefore, the best approach is to first create a sand table sketch using mud, and then make subsequent modifications.

Fusu took out the simplest old clothes from the wardrobe, tied the wide sleeves of the clothes with a cloth bag, and then tied a piece of cloth around his chest. After making sure he wouldn't get dirty, he sat in the yard and slowly played with the mud by himself.

Here we need to put a tree, there we need to put a meadow, this place has the best scenery, we must build a big lake, with strange rocks and artificial mountains on the lake, piled up to resemble the Three Immortal Mountains at sea, so that Father Emperor won't always be thinking about going to sea.

Fusu made quite a commotion today, and the news quickly spread throughout his palace. Every woman in his household knew that the eldest son was playing in the mud in the courtyard garden, which was the perfect opportunity for a chance encounter.

But think about Fusu's temper; it's even worse than His Majesty's. Although His Majesty is cold, he still has some feelings for his women, just not very deep.

Fusu was completely different. On the surface, he was cheerful and generous, loved to laugh and make a fuss, and was kind and considerate to others. But when he turned his back on someone, he was guaranteed to be completely devoid of emotion and only showed affection to his close blood relatives.

Adding to this Fusu's eccentric personality, the women in the harem really didn't...

As a result, five more little ones, big and small, appeared in the yard, learning to walk.

“Five treasures, what brings you here?” Fusu shook his temples, looking at the five little bundles of joy with an average age of four to five.

Since the arrival of these five little ones, Fusu has deeply felt the difficulty Ying Zheng faced in raising them eighteen children. Therefore, for the time being... he meant for the time being, he did not want any more children until the five treasures grew up. Taking care of these brats was too much of a hassle. In any case, he not only had an heir, but also a backup plan.

Although Fusu was intelligent throughout his life, there was one thing he never understood.

Although Ying Zheng had many sons and daughters, few were favored and many were relatively unknown. He truly raised only Fusu with his own heart and soul, and Huhai could barely be considered half a son. The other children were raised by palace servants. Ying Zheng usually only played with the children when he was in a good mood, or made them recite texts when he was in a bad mood, finding pleasure in their pained expressions.

When he saw his unloved sons and daughters, the total amount of time he spent with them in a year might not even equal the amount of time he spent seeing Li Si in a month.

But Fusu's approach to raising children was different. He treated the five children the same way Ying Zheng had raised him, making being a good father particularly tiring.

It's not physically tiring, it's mentally exhausting. You know how it is with those unruly kids.

"Dad, Da Bao wants to play in the mud too." Da Bao blinked as he looked at the mud in Fu Su's hand.

Few children can resist the temptation of mud. In fact, Fusu never saw any of his younger siblings who didn't love playing in the mud. However, the children in the palace were all carefully raised by their nannies, who would rather put them in a sterile greenhouse than let them play in the mud.

Therefore, when they saw their father playing in the mud in public, all five children's eyes shone with longing.

“Uh… Father isn’t playing in the mud, Father is helping your grandfather with his work,” Fusu emphasized earnestly.

“Then Da Bao will also help Grandpa with his work.” Da Bao replied quickly without hesitation.

"Erbao wants one too."

"Sanbao loves his grandfather the most."

"Grandfather liked Sibao. He praised Sibao for being cute. Sibao wanted to submit something to that newspaper or something."

"Wu Bao... Wu Bao..." Wu Bao, the youngest of the group of treasures, looked anxiously at his four older brothers, then glanced at Fu Su, and finally pouted in grievance, sat down on the ground, and cried sadly, "Wu Bao can't speak, they've already said everything."

"Alright, alright! Be good, Wu Bao, don't cry. Daddy will let you play, okay?" Fu Su rubbed his aching temples.

Father, I love you. It wasn't easy for you to raise me.

Upon hearing Fusu's words, Wubao, who had been crying bitterly with snot and tears streaming down her face, let out an "Oh," wiped her face with the backs of her hands, dried the tear stains, and smiled sweetly.

"Dad, Wubao is here to help you." Wubao ran happily to Fusu's side and said in a sweet and cloying voice.

Apart from her slightly red eyes, Wu Bao looked happy and there was no sign that she had just cried.

What an amazingly talented but mischievous kid!

In fact, the reason why Fusu agreed to let the five treasures cause trouble was not because he was too indulgent or unable to refuse them. Fusu suddenly thought that although his boss's inheritance would not only be left to him in the future, but would also pass through his hands and be left to his children—most likely one of the five treasures.

So, as the future young master of the new palace, it's only right that I ask for the opinions of the five treasures.

Based on this idea, Fusu adopted the suggestions of the Five Treasures on a large scale in the design.

However, children are fickle in nature and their imaginations are boundless. Therefore, after the five children called out "Children's Paradise," "Big House," and "Grassland," the final design of the new palace was not bad, but it just didn't conform to modern Chinese aesthetics.

On a side note, if the new palace were actually built in this style, I wonder if one of the Five Treasures, with normal aesthetic sense, would hate his younger self so much that he would want to bury him in a pile of mud after growing up and becoming the master of the new palace.

Regardless of what happens in the future, Fusu is quite satisfied with the new palace he and his five treasures have built.

In his aesthetic view, the Xianyang Palace was indeed large, but it was meaningless. It was always square and tall, which was extremely boring. He preferred the new palace, which had a dreamlike style, like a fairyland in a fairy tale.

Most importantly, this method of setting up a set saves a lot of money.

Putting everything else aside, building such a large house and ensuring it won't collapse requires stringent requirements for load-bearing columns and beams—that alone is enough to give anyone a headache.

It is not easy for a century-old tree to grow, and it has to be transported from deep in the mountains. Just think about how much manpower and resources it takes. According to Fusu's design, apart from the main hall of the front palace being grand and majestic, with the majesty of a capital city, the harem is not so large. Instead, it focuses more on clever design style. The demand for building materials and manpower is not so high, but the skill of the designer is required more.

With the efforts of one big bear cub and five little bear cubs, the clay model of the main building of the new palace was quickly completed, and it was time to invite Ying Zheng to inspect it.

Upon hearing the wonderful news about Fusu, Ying Zheng agreed to Fusu's request without hesitation. He happily ordered Zhao Gao to prepare a carriage so that he could go to Fusu's palace to admire the model of his future new home.

then……

Ying Zheng saw five little mud monkeys covered in yellow mud, and a pile of yellow mud on the ground... well, in chunks, with many fingerprints on it. Combined with the mud's excrement-like color, Ying Zheng thought that the five treasures were playing with their excrement... cough cough.

Don't ask me why I know this. I wasn't born this cool and stylish. I was raised in a free-range environment.

The reason why he didn't think so was because Ying Zheng felt that there was a lot of mud on the ground. Even if the five treasures were dehydrated, they couldn't produce such a large amount of mud.

But that's not the point. The point is, where is my palace?

Ying Zheng looked around, then turned to Fusu with a suspicious expression. "Where are the things?"

"Isn't it right in front of you?" Fusu patted his chest excitedly, then pointed to each of the five little mud monkeys. "I made it with them."

The five little mud monkeys looked at Ying Zheng and nodded in unison, their eyes filled with barely suppressed excitement and enthusiasm.

Ying Zheng chuckled, then suddenly had a bad feeling.

He glanced around and finally his eyes landed on the pile of excrement-like stuff on the ground.

Could this be what that brat sent me to see?